On the podcast today to celebrate the 50th episode I have a very special guest, Michelle Dawn Silcox. 

I have often been asked to talk about boarding school syndrome and relationships. 

Well, today I thought that I would get one of the experts in this field, my wife! 

Michelle is a relationship counsellor and has been interested in psychology and wellness for many decades. 

Today she shares some of her journey of being married to a boarding school survivor and what she advises those who are in relationships with ex-boarders and those ex-boarders themselves. 

Michelle Dawn Silcox is a complementary therapist, spiritual counsellor, and Reiki teacher. In her 20s she worked as a model and then became a complementary therapist and a spiritual and relationship counsellor. In her 30s she had a near death experience which gave her a greater understanding of the work that she was doing. In the 90s she set up a healing centre in Hebden Bridge which is still running to this day. She has also been married to the podcast host, Piers Cross, for the past 13 years.

Some of the questions that I ask her:

1. I would love for you to talk a bit about your life and journey.
2. In your work you talk about the importance of the masculine and the feminine. Can you please explain? How does this relate to relationships?
3. What are some of the key traits of ex-boarders in relationships? How is that different from people who have not been to boarding school? Both the positives and the negatives?
4. Can you talk about some of these other areas:
   1. Control and manipulation
   2. Project identifcation – when you feel like you are going crazy if the other partners is in denial or dissociation.
   3. Workoholism and how we struggle to stop
   4. Shut down hearts and how we open them up again.
   5. Growing up in a world with leaders with shut down hearts – what was it like growing up in this environment for a young girl – thinking that you had been born on the wrong planet.
   6. How we met
   7. Separation between sex and love
   8. Elders
   9. Complaining and blaming
5. What are relationships all about?
6. How does a man deal with a woman's anger or upset?
7. How do we as men/ ex-boarders/ people who have been through trauma heal and recover?

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Piers is an author and a men's transformational coach and therapist who works mainly with trauma, boarding school issues, addictions and relationship problems.

He also runs online men's groups for ex-boarders, retreats and a podcast called An Evolving Man.

He is also the author of How to Survive and Thrive in Challenging Times. To purchase Piers first book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Survive-Thrive-Challenging-Times/dp/B088T5L251/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=piers+cross&qid=1609869608&sr=8-1

For more videos please visit: http://youtube.com/pierscross

For FB: https://www.facebook.com/pierscrosspublic

For Piers' website and a free training How To Find Peace In Everyday Life: https://www.piers-cross.com/community

Many blessings,

Piers Cross

http://piers-cross.com/